Tag Archives: missile tests

A senior North Korean official has dismissed remarks by US Vice-President Mike Pence as “stupid”, casting further uncertainty about a planned meeting between the two countries’ leaders. Choe Son-hui said the North would not “beg” for dialogue and warned of a “nuclear showdown” if diplomacy failed. In recent days, both …

President Donald Trump on Friday said the date and location have been set for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which would be announced soon, and hinted at progress in winning the release of three Americans held in North Korea. The White House has said the first …

by Graham E. Fuller* — I may be naive but I get the feeling that something possibly profound is underway with the recent dramatic flurry of diplomatic activity surrounding the once reclusive leader Kim Jong Un; it could represent a turning point in the geopolitics of East Asia. In …

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will shut down his nuclear test site in May and invite experts and journalists from South Korea and the United States into the country to ensure “transparency” around its closure, South Korea’s presidential office said Sunday. It is the latest breakthrough on the peninsula …

Friday’s summit between the leaders of North and South Korea was a “historic meeting” paving the way for the start of a new era, North Korea’s media say. The North’s Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in of South Korea agreed to work to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons. The official …

President Donald Trump said he’ll abandon plans for an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un if he decides it won’t be successful — or walk out of the meeting if it’s not productive while he’s there. “If we don’t think it’s going to be successful, we won’t …

Pyongyang has told Washington that it is ready to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump meet, a U.S. official has confirmed to NPR. In direct contacts between U.S. and North Korean officials, the latter relayed to the Trump administration …

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un promised to not use nuclear or conventional weapons against South Korea and expressed willingness to hold talks with the United States on denuclearization, Seoul said on Tuesday after a rare two-day visit to Pyongyang. The Hermit Kingdom added that it’s willing to give up …

The Trump administration and key Asian allies are preparing to expand interceptions of ships suspected of violating sanctions on North Korea, a plan that could include deploying U.S. Coast Guard forces to stop and search vessels in Asia-Pacific waters, senior U.S. officials said. Washington has been talking to regional partners, …

United Nations Security Council (UNSC) envoys are set to visit Washington to see debris purportedly from a Yemeni missile that reached deep inside Saudi territory last year, with the US claiming that it was supplied by Iran. The envoys will visit a military hangar in Washington on Monday, where US Ambassador …

A group of North Korean citizens living in Japan called the Chongryon have proposed sending a cheer squad to the upcoming Pyeongchang Olympics. According to sources close to the group, the Chongryon cheer delegation is set to be around 170 people and may expand if they receive many applicants, Yonhap reported. According to …

North Korea’s surprise call on Monday for direct talks with South Korea could drive a wedge into the decades-old alliance between Seoul and Washington, potentially creating a reprieve from months of tensions but also undercutting President Trump’s tough approach to the nuclear-armed North. A New Year’s Day speech by Kim Jong-un, …

The latest U.N. sanctions against North Korea are an act of war and tantamount to a complete economic blockade against the country, North Korea’s foreign ministry said on Sunday, threatening to punish those who supported the measure. The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Friday …

The U.S. agency tasked with protecting the country from missile attacks is scouting the West Coast for places to deploy new anti-missile defenses, two Congressmen said on Saturday, as North Korea’s missile tests raise concerns about how the United States would defend itself from an attack. West Coast defenses would likely include Terminal High Altitude …

H.R. McMaster, President Trump’s national security adviser, said Saturday that the possibility of war with North Korea increases every day the problem over its nuclear program isn’t solved. “I think it’s increasing every day,” McMaster told Fox News’ Bret Baier at the Reagan National Security Forum in California. “It means …

Closer ties between two of the world’s most acute political powder kegs — North Korea and Syria — are fanning fears of deeper cooperation on missile technology and chemical weapons. The longstanding bilateral relationship, which stretches back to the late 1960s, has prospered this year even as both countries face international sanctions. Syrian minister …

President Donald Trump put North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism on Monday, a designation that allows the United States to impose more sanctions and risks inflaming tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. The Republican president, who has traded personal insults with North Korean …

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis visited Friday morning the heavily fortified border between North Korea and South Korea known as the Demilitarized Zone amid heightened tensions over the North’s nuclear program and the war of words between President Trump and Kim Jong Un. At the DMZ, Mattis was briefed at …

US President Donald Trump will accuse Iran of failing to comply with an international nuclear deal, according to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Mr Trump will refuse to certify the deal and refer it to Congress, he told reporters. Such a move would not mean a US withdrawal from the …

By Graham Fuller It’s hard to make up a character like Kim Jong Un—his demeanor that reeks callow youth, corpulent self-indulgence, bathing in the adulation of his attendant military brass who sport the highest crowned military visors in the business, the adoring public applause as he presides over another reckless …

South Korea said on Tuesday an agreement with the United States to scrap a weight limit on its warheads would help it respond to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat after Pyongyang conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test two days ago. South Korean officials believe more provocation from the …

Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the U.S. and others to avoid going down a “dead-end road” with North Korea on Friday, adding only dialogue without pre-conditions could resolve the crisis. “Russia believes that the policy of putting pressure on Pyongyang to stop its nuclear missile program is misguided and futile,” …

Iran has dismissed a U.S. demand for United Nations nuclear inspectors to visit its military bases as “merely a dream”. It also said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was unlikely to agree anyway. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, last week pressed the IAEA to seek …

The United States flew two B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force after recent North Korean missile tests, the U.S. Air Force said in a statement on Sunday. North Korea said it conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Friday that proved …